Grossman threw for 248 yards and four touchdowns. Also, third receiver Taylor Jacobs, caught 10 passes for 170 yards, both Orange Bowl records, to help turn Spurrier's quarterback shuffle into a stunning offensive highlight show.

"It looks pretty easy when everyone is playing well," said quarterback Brock Berlin, who made his first career start and is headed to the scUM in Coral Gables.

Jabar Gaffney caught two touchdowns passes for Florida and tailback Earnest Graham ran for 149 yards and two scores. The Gators gained 659 yards to break a 49-year-old Orange Bowl record and the Gators showed that we should have been playing those canes for the national title in the Rose Bowl.

In a tournament system Florida would have been seeded No. 2 according to Vegas odds makers.  Too bad we lost those two games.  Seemingly determined to prove his team's greatness, Spurrier kept Grossman in the game deep into the fourth quarter, and when he threw a long pass incomplete with 4 minutes left, the dwindling Maryland crowd booed.  The Maryland crowed was much more fired up about this game.  They were loader and much more excited than the GatorNation at the game.

I was sitting in the Gator section that bordered with some Turtles and they were talking so much smack you'd think they really belong in this game.  At the end, Gators showed them what it means to be ranked in the top 5.

Berlin played about the way an untested sophomore would be expected to play.  He will have a lot of competition in Miami. 

But indeed, his time came, and his first six drives were much more impressive than Berlin's.

The Heisman Trophy runner-up entered to big cheers with 6:03 left in the second quarter and showed exactly how he earned the starting position and kept it through all 11 regular-season games.  Many Gators were cheering "WE WANT REX".

There were too many highlights to count, but the second touchdown -- both the drive and the scoring pass -- were testament to how he became Florida's No. 1 quarterback.

He directed a six-play, 64-yard touchdown drive that started with 1:25 left in the first half. The scoring play was a perfect lob in coverage to Gaffney, a pass that only a quarterback with perfect knowledge of his receiver's capabilities would dare throw. It gave Florida a 28-10 lead.

Gaffney finished with seven catches for 118 yards, but Jacobs was the best receiver on this night, and he was selected the game's Most Valuable Player. His presence is one of a number of reasons Florida's passing game works so well. Jacobs is the third-string receiver, but he's the fastest player on the team, and he can catch. Not too many teams in the country have enough good defensive backs to cover them all. Maryland certainly didn't, and the record book will reflect that.  The Maryland coach said "They've got some great athletes.  I was in the NFL for five years and the only team that was better was the Oakland Raiders."

Jacobs' 10 catches equaled the record set by David Terrell of Michigan in the 2000 Orange Bowl. The 170 yards were 11 more than the record held by Alabama's Ray Perkins (1966) and Florida's Travis Taylor in 1999 who now plays for the Ravens.  Jacobs also broke Florida's all-time bowl receiving record (166 yards, Cris Collinsworth in the 1980 Tangerine Bowl vs. Maryland).

The teams combined for 79 points, breaking the combined record of 69 set by Texas and Georgia in 1949. Their 1,019 total yards broke the record of 903 set by Florida State and Notre Dame in 1996.

Florida's 659 yards surpassed the 596 gained against Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl by Alabama, a record so old it came before Bear Bryant coached the Crimson Tide. It was the worst in the long list of huge numbers Maryland allowed in this, its first bowl game since the 1990 Independence.

This was a good end to a disappointing season.  W did not win a championship and beating up the ACC champion means something, but not much compared to the SEC Title.